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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2011)
Street roots 9 April 29, 2011 POETRY, from page 8 mind going crazy. I found writing as a way to vent my rage rather than kill somebody. I was realty close to committing homicide on these people. It helped me get the rage out.” It doesn’t take a close, exegetic reading to sense Shirley’s emotions, just empathy. Bitterness forms a salty exterior, a protective shell built up around her. But there is also a sweetness which manifests as we talk about the man she dates. “We’re taking it slow,” she says, hopeful he’ll be the one, and hopeful she won’t experience homelessness again. Portland is a convergence zone, a modest city with a high per-capita homeless population and a writing class with Portland poets Kaia Sand and strong culture of non-profits and artists. The act of Lynn Grannan, he wrote a draft of a soon-to-be- writing and art-creation are elevated to important work of art. This quickly-composed poem fundamentally important ones rather than ancillary put him onstage with Oregon’s former poet-laureate concerns. Lawson Inada; Inada wrote a poem about a One such group is the Colored Pencils Art Japanese internment camp situated on Rhodes’ Collective, whose monthly art shows and open mics reservation. The two men read together at 2010’s highlight visual art, writing, music and storytelling. Japanese American Historical Plaza Rededication The all-volunteer staff works closely with the ceremony. artists, gaining trust and teasing out works that would otherwise never be shared. And though the I d id n ’t know their names or faces Rose City has a reputation for a lack of diversity, i No peace o f m ind I really d id n ’t know too m uch o f their history No quiet to embrace this organization breaks the mold. A ll I ’ve seen was slabs o f concrete in the ground God does exist Nim Xuto, Colored Pencils’ executive director Foundations I was told fo r people long ago. B u t so fa r from this place and co-founder, gives a short list of their participants’ cultural backgrounds: Bhutanese, Leo R h o d e s Who are you? You sleep on the sidewalk Cambodian, West African, Mexican, Iraqi, Thai, In fro n t o f the building I live in Samoan, Palestinian, Burmese, Laotian, Togolese, Leo Rhodes writes about events outside of There you are Cameroonian, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, Native himself as well as those personal to him. He does American, African-American, Indonesian-American, — Shirley so, he says, in order to foster greater Indian, Nepalese. communication between people, to show how we all “Music and art are within us, they are of our Shirley attends meetings at Central City Concern share more than we think. “We need to start souls,” Xuto says. “Art is a universal language. It and is on the list for permanent housing through hugging each other again. No matter what anyone’s doesn’t come out in the conference room or over a the Housing Authority of, Portland. In addition to monetary status is. With writing, people see that coffee table. The stories that come through art and reading onstage, her poems were featured in Write we are all the same. People come up to me and say Around Portland’s Fall 2009 anthology, “More Than music touch our hearts. Portland should be proud 1 have those problems too, only I have a house.’” that we’ll grow into a city filled with diverse a Book,” foreword by Dave Eggers. For her next communities that can work as one.” project, Shirley hopes to write her own poetry “Writing and art and community building are collection — one about recovery, happiness and joy. any of Portland’s street writers mention how vital,” corroborates Robyn Steely She is the “Writing,” she says, “helps me find a voice within writing allows them to express things that executive director of the non-profit organization myself.” would otherwise remain unvoiced and left to fester. Write Around Portland. “We’re complex people,” Michael Vance is a good example of this. Though says Steely. “We all have to create and express not homeless, he’s spent many nights in treatment ourselves and make connections with other people isters of the Road Café serves as a meeting centers, shelters and on couches. Having previously to be fully human.” point for many street writers, in organized published writing in Street Roots, an experience he Since 1999, Write Around Portland has facilitated writing workshops as well as informally. One counts among the most important in his life, he of Portland’s most vocal poet/activists works thére writing workshops, partnering with over 170 social now works at a packing plant on Hayden Island. service groups and more than 3,000 individuals. in a cramped upstairs office. Julie McCurdy is a I met with Vance in a Barnes and Noble coffee Steely explains how their classes are accessible and housing organizer and speaks with the pragmatic shop. The other patrons were noticeably centrally-located, with transit passes provided to urgency of someone knowledgeable, first-hand, uncomfortable, the veins on his shaved head participants. about homelessness. She sees her writing as part tensing while he speaks about his writing, “We’ve worked with JOIN, Julie West House, confessional and part as a shared voice for others in emotional turmoil, his addiction struggles. Sisters of the Road, as well as Central City Concern similar situations. Occasionally Vance’s Tourette’s Syndrome kicks up — lots of folks who are homeless or who’ve been After a traumatic event, McCurdy became in sharp wheezes, like a bull exhaling. Vance says homeless and are transitioning to more stable terrified of unfamiliar men. She tells me how Native his writing helps undo emotional blockages. housing situations.” American writer and activist John TrudeU eventually “When I write it’s basically venting anger* Write* Around Portland compiles writing from - inspired her, finally demonstrating a way to so m e tim e s a t society, so m e tim e s a t life in g e n eral. I workshop participants into three yearly anthologies. transform pain and trauma into creative self- know I was stupid. I overdosed twice. When I’d The Spring 2011 anthology will be released at a expression. been clean long enough I started writing.” May 26th event, the foreword written by Street “Before being unhoused I had no background in Roots’ executive director Israel Bayer, himself a writing. Then I felt I had to write about the “A ll the joy and all the pain poet difficulties of women experiencing homelessness. absorbed silently within steel structures The empathy inherent to writing and art brings My writing let me be heard in a place where I was look a t those trackmarks invisible. I write as a form of therapy, just like every people together, revealing differences as well as so proud o f them scars. ” universal experiences. “Stories: From the Street” other writer. It felt like I mattered to someone. — M ich ael V a n c e Writing is a go-thoughyoü process. I vomit poetry. I perhaps gave Portland’s homeless and street writers their due, though it was just one event. The write poetry on napkins. I don’t write unless hirley is another poet whose content trends lights went down at the end of the night and . something moves me.” toward the personal. Her work emphasizes everyone went home — those of us with homes of McCurdy speaks also of the empowerment of visceral powerlessness* Seated at Sisters of the our own. having one’s writing read,' especially for the Road Café in downtown, Portland, Shirley wistfully There are a humber of responses one may have homeless. Her own work has appeared in local watches the light rail trains pass by. Her coat.is a publications, including the website poMotion, which to fight The first is self-congratulation, feeling good vinyl impression of leather, the waves in her hair about yourself for going to an event or reading the ‘ she helped create. Love Letters from the Concrete Streaked a orange-blonde, like a pop star at 50. work of homeless writers. Another is pity, thinking Jungle is a CD McCurdy recorded of her poetry set Though periods of addiction and homelessness * how awful it must be to live on the street. Then to music. mark her life, once upon a time she had been stable there is hopelessness, forgetting all the ways we and a homeowner. Shirley tells me how the man in can, and must, support the disadvantaged in our Somewhere along this bumpy road her life had invited over a friend to stay with them. society. We have as much to learn about ourselves other peoples opinions lost their ability Then two friends. Then many. They abused drugs, as we do about others. People are people, whether to define who I am . she says, and forced substances on her as well. they’re onstage, in the audience, inside the office and the rules th a t society lives by “Before I knew it there were 20 to 25 people at building or crouched on the sidewalk. slipped away any one time running around. They fed me just , — Ju lie M cC urdy enough dope to keep me frustrated and kept my M S S CONSTRUCTION SUB-BIDS REQUESTED FOR 85 CAUSEY Bids Due: March 3,2011 at 2 pm -------Y O R K E & C U R T IS g en e r al c o n t r a c t o r s (503) 646-2123 FAX: (503) 643-5531 P lans are available at: www.yorkeandcurHsxom, BXWA, Oregon C o n tra c ts Wan Mill and DJC Oregon Ne are an equal opportunity employer encouraging disadvantaged ^oritw ow ned woman-owned, emerging small business and section unonty own3esubcontractors and suppliers to submrt bids. Contact Zach Bascom at 503-646-2123 for more information regarding this project.
